Japanese students adjust to American college life at ESU

When travelers come to America for extended study, it is always the little things that surprise them.

"For me, it was the hugging," said Sayo Kyogoku, a student with the Sakae Institute of Study Abroad. Kyogoku says the close, informal contact Americans enjoy was confusing to her at first. For Erika Hayashi, it was the way American men and women sit together for meals - something that rarely happens in Japanese schools.

Kyogoku and Hayashi are taking intensive English and culture courses through a partnership between the Sakae Institute and Emporia State University. They are spending eight weeks with 32 other Japanese students at ESU polishing their English skills and getting used to life at an American university.

Since 1972, the Sakae Institute has helped over 5,000 Japanese students graduate from American high schools, colleges and universities. This year, ESU is hosting one of eight summer orientation programs in the U.S.

The program includes eight credit hours of intensive English classes and three hours of academic courses in communication, economics or math. In the fall, the Sakae Institute students will continue their studies at private, liberal arts colleges throughout the country.

For Masahiro Ito, who will attend Mt. Union College in Alliance, Ohio, the program eases the transition between Japanese and American schools. "In the Sakae Institute, I can learn how to live in a dormitory, how to study for classes and how to make friends."

Besides attending classes, the students join in organized social activities, such as parties, canoe trips and athletics - as well as field trips to Topeka and Kansas City. Three program assistants - two hired by ESU and one from the Sakae Institute -- live, eat and travel with the students.

"We're easing the culture shock," said ESU program assistant Paula Burt, a native of Paraguay who had to adapt to American culture when she came to study at ESU last year.

The ESU Office of International Education identifies four distinct phases of culture shock in its handbook. First is the "spectator phase," in which a visitor is initially eager to explore their new surroundings. But soon the "conflict phase" sets in, after the newness and excitement wears off. People can become so frustrated at this point that they experience physical symptoms of insomnia, indigestion and colds.

But soon, visitors enter the "adjustment phase" as they start to make sense of the new culture - especially as they master the new language and learn to read social cues of their host country. Successful visitors finally settle into the "understanding phase" as they learn to appreciate the positive aspects of a culture and avoid the undesirable ones.

"They don't always know what they are going through," explains Marianne Curtis, an ESU instructor who teaches an English and culture class for the institute. "As a teacher, you have to accept these stages of adjustment. We talk a lot about expectations at American universities and how they are different from Japan so they are not surprised when they encounter differences."

ESU program assistant Harry Imbeau also has first-hand experience with culture shock. The Kansas City, Kan. native spent a semester in France and a month teaching English in China. According to Imbeau, the Sakae Institute eases the transition by creating a familiar community of learners.

"This community increases their comfort level in the beginning, and then we expand their experiences slowly to involve other groups. We try to let them test the waters a little before plunging into the cold pool," he said.

"After this, they're going to get real life," said Sakae Institute program assistant Kazuo Fukuda, a Japanese native who has lived and studied in Australia, France and the U.S. "This summer is like the video on the plane about American life. It's a 'summer camp world' with comfortable things to get them used to what's going on in the states."

The ESU Sakae summer program has an economic impact as well as an educational and cultural one, said James Harter, ESU assistant vice president for international education.

"The program generates significant income for housing and food service as well as tuition and fees," he said. "International education today is a very competitive business. ESU is indeed fortunate to have been chosen as one of the eight program sites, and the only one in Kansas."

Last Updated July 2, 2007>